Stanford, Baylor ponder their place without Luck, RGIII

By David Jones, Florida Today

They were first and second in the 2011 Heisman Trophy voting, perhaps the two players who have done more for their schools' programs in the past couple of years than any one player has done in decades.

By Kyle Terada,, U.S. Presswire

Stanford coach David Shaw says that with departure of Andrew Luck, more of the load will fall on running back Stepfan Taylor.

Stanford coach David Shaw says that with departure of Andrew Luck, more of the load will fall on running back Stepfan Taylor.

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Andrew Luck put Stanford back on the college football map, throwing for more than 9,000 yards in three years while averaging more than 10 wins a year, compared to less than four in the seven years before he came.

Heisman winner Robert Griffin III got Baylor on the map after never really being on it — tossing 37 TD passes a year ago with, incredibly, more than 5,600 yards of total offense as the Bears finished the season ranked (12th in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll) for the first time since 1986.

But as quickly as stars are made on the collegiate level, they move on. Now, the spotlight has faded and everyone has moved on, pausing only long enough to ask, "What else have you got."

Baylor and Stanford feel they have the goods to continue building nationally competitive programs. How easily both are able to handle the transition of losing two special players will be answered in the next few years.

Stanford coach David Shaw isn't as concerned about replacing the quarterback who was the Heisman Trophy runner-up the past two seasons because he feels running back Stepfan Taylor — going for his third consecutive 1,000-yard rushing season — will take up a lot of the load.

"I don't feel the pressure, I feel we have to just go out there and play our best game, every game," Taylor insists of the added spotlight on him this fall.

Shaw said the Cardinal defensive front and linebackers will be "as good as college football has."

The point has already been made to the quarterback candidates — it was announced last week that redshirt junior Josh Nunes will start for the No. 18 Cardinal on Friday against San Jose State — that no one person could take Luck's place.

Likewise, Baylor hopes to reload and keep winning.

It will at least have an experienced hand to replace Griffin. Senior Nick Florence made seven starts in 2009 after RGIII suffered a season-ending knee injury, and he came in again last year when Griffin was hurt late in the first half vs. Texas Tech.

"I think our national brand is probably as good as it's ever been," Bears coach Art Briles said. "What we have to do now is maintain it, and that's where my inspiration, passion and drive certainly is going to come from."

While Griffin pushed the program into the nation's attention, Briles feels an on-campus stadium now under construction should help keep it there.

"It's going to change the whole image of Baylor, I mean, to people that never really considered Baylor from now on, the next 50 years," Briles said. "There's 42 million people that drive down (Interstate 35) beginning 2014 that are going to see this beautiful stadium, which is going to be one of the most beautiful stadiums in the United States of America on the Brazos River, and they're going to look over and say, 'OK, those people at Baylor are doing it right,' because it's going to be unmatched in beauty."

But what does the loss of Griffin do to the building plan?

Much like Shaw at Stanford, Briles realizes help must come from a variety of places.

"That's the thing that makes our guys come together and fight for each other … because we're in the proving business," Briles said. "We're not in the business of getting close and saying 'maybe' and 'gosh, I wish.' We're in the proving business. Our job is to win.

"So what we have to do is figure out ways to fill in the gaps, because Robert created a bunch of gaps. His ability from somebody else's is a big gap. We have to fill that in with a variety of methods, schematically, personnel-wise and motivational-wise and inspiration-wise that will give us an opportunity to stay at the level we finished at last year."